Parasha Vayakhel (And He Assembled)

From Rabbi Jack...

1 Kings {14:11} "The dogs shall eat whoever belongs to Jeroboam and dies in the city, and the birds of the air shall eat whoever dies in the field; for the Lord has spoken!" {14:12} Arise therefore, go to your own house. When your feet enter the city, the child shall die. {14:13} And all Israel shall mourn for him and bury him, for he is the only one of Jeroboam who shall come to the grave, because in him there is found something good toward the Lord God of Israel in the house of Jeroboam."

Sometimes I wonder what God saw in me that He felt was worthy to die for. I did not deserve it yet He saw it fit to bring me to a saving knowledge of His Son Messiah Yeshua. Looking back on my life before salvation, I can see many times I could have died as sinner and ended up spending eternity in hell. As a young child I almost choked to death; my uncle revived me. As a young boy I was accidently pushed off a pier into the water and was drowning; a stranger lifted me out. As a young man my car spun out of control in heavy rain on a busy highway; somehow, I was saved from almost certain death. In my early thirties many friends I partied with and was doing the same things they were doing were dying from drugs and sexually transmitted diseases; I was spared to go on and become a Messianic Rabbi; talk about God's Grace! These are only the events I remember; I am certain there are many others that I am not aware of but God knows. I am sure all of us who are saved and reading this today have had similar experiences, some we remember, others will be revealed to us when we get to heaven.

We are quick to thank God and praise Him for answered prayer, getting us through difficult times or for unexpected blessings but have we ever thought of praising Him for preserving us until the day of our salvation? If you cannot think of any specific incident in your life to praise Him for, surely the fact that He chose to save you and die for you qualifies:

Psalm {71:6} "By You I have been upheld from birth; You are He who took me out of my mother's womb. My praise shall be continually of You."

To God be the Glory, Praise and Honor for the wonderful things He has done.

From Ellen...

Hi Ellen here…It has been a busy week and I have been very distracted. I will tell you why…Jack has survived an insidious disease and in fact June will be five years; hallelujah! He is now going through a similar situation but doing extremely well, praise God. The reason we are both distracted; when Jack began treatment, we were told he would have to endure 6 infusions of a very strong biochemical drug, once a week for six weeks. December 26th was the sixth treatment and all his bloodwork and numbers were stellar. To our surprise the doctor, instead of saying how well he was doing, stated that this protocol calls for two more treatments; Thursday, the 24th was his seventh…what am I getting at? I am getting at endurance and keeping our eyes always on the Lord. We praise God everyday…in fact we pray and praise at least four times a day together and always thanking Him for giving us a mantle of endurance to get through infirmities and trials…just as you all have to do. Everyone has a prescription for prayer. Everyone has sickness in their lives. Everyone experiences trials each day in all kinds of situations in life. Now I would like to type that everyone keeps their eyes on the Lord through all these but I cannot. Why? Because as finite human beings we all faultier…even Jack and I. Let us all ask the Lord for increased endurance and the never-ending ability to keep our eyes on Him. All our love in Yeshua to everyone.

Visit our blog for more teaching and to view previous Torah commentaries:

https://weeklyparasha02.blogspot.com/

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Please consider supporting the ministry to Kenya and Israel. In Kenya, for the poor and orphans and in Israel for the elderly poor and sick.

If you do not have PayPal and would prefer using another donation method, please contact me and I will send you other options.

Yours in Messiah Yeshua; our Lord, our God, our soon coming King.

Rabbi Jack & Ellen

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Parasha Commentary

Sermon of the week: He Calls Us Friend: Part 3"

Parasha Ki Tisa (When You Take)

From Rabbi Jack...

Ellen and I enjoy watching travel shows on television. In fact, Ellen has mentioned in the past that we have been around the world and have visited countless countries without ever leaving our living room. While in the country being featured on a show the host takes us to the exciting tourist attractions offered in it; museums, exciting cites and their features and beautiful vistas but they also engage, where available, in ziplining, bungy jumping and repelling. I am not afraid of heights but these are three things I have no ambition to do and are certainly not on my bucket list. I get butterflies in my stomach from just watching as the camera pans the gorges with either rocks or a raging river below the ziplines and high bridges, or the street below the tallest building in the city with cars speeding by where the repelling is done. Can you imagine trusting a rope while leaning backwards over the edge of a tall building or bridge seventy-six meters (250 ft.) or more in the air and letting yourself fall from it? Yet we can see people paying and standing in line to do it; not my definition of fun!

All over the world in our living room travels we have seen people putting their trust in ropes and harnesses. So why is it that so many people, including Believers in Messiah Yeshua, find it so difficult to put their confidence in Yeshua and release themselves into His hands? Throughout our lives as Believers in Messiah Yeshua we are going to have cliffhanging, edge of building type experiences where the only support we will have is not a rope or a bungee cord, but our faith. Ask an unbeliever and they will say faith in God is irrational while they would not hesitate to put their faith in a man-made rope. I do not know about you but I would rather trust in the Lord and put my faith in Him before ever putting my faith in man. There is probably nothing more exhilarating when falling into a difficult situation than to know that Yeshua is there as our lifeline. I would like to share the following verses with you:

Psalm 20:7 "Some trust in chariots. Some trust in horses. But we trust in the LORD our God."

Proverbs 3:5 "Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; 6) in all your ways submit to Him, and He will make your paths straight."

Hebrews 11:6 "And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to Him must believe that He exists and that He rewards those who earnestly seek Him."

From Ellen...

Hi Ellen here…On our first trip to Kenya in 2007 we had the joy to be able to minister at a retreat for a couple of days. This was not a religious compound but a rustic resort set close to Mount Kenya. Our accommodations were simple, clean and we had everything we needed. As Jack readied himself to teach a Bible study we were asked to go for a walk and view the grounds as it was still light. The trees and foliage were beautiful…mature and well cared for. As we approached a very old and very large tree there arose an odor, no more like a stench in the air and our host smiled…he beckoned for us to quietly come closer and there was a split in the trunk housing a very large and smelly badger. Many years have passed but that memory lingers, not sure if it is because of the beauty of the place or the stench of the badger.

This past week we were reading in Exodus concerning all the materials used for the Tabernacle and lo and behold the Lord directed Moses to use badger skins for the covering of the Tent. Yes, I am sure they were treated and all lingering odors had gone. What came to mind was the Lord used the skins of smelly animals to adorn and protect His dwelling, so how much more will he continue to use us for His glory!

Please continue to pray for Janet. Her mother abandoned her because she was premature and sickly and she could not afford to care for her needs. Pictured below:

Visit our blog for more teaching and to view previous Torah commentaries:

https://weeklyparasha02.blogspot.com/

Please consider supporting the ministry to Kenya and Israel. In Kenya, we help the poor and orphans and in Israel we help the elderly poor and the sick.

DONATE

Do not use PayPal? Contact me for other donation options.

Yours in Messiah Yeshua; our Lord, our God, our soon coming King.

Shabbat Shalom,

Rabbi Jack & Ellen

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Parasha Commentary

Sermon of the week "He Calls Us Friend: Part 2"

Parasha Tetzaveh (You Shall Command)

From Rabbi Jack

There is an amazingly beautiful thing that God does in our lives when we go through adversity. So many ministries have been started by people, not because they decided to start a ministry, but because they went through an affliction, a disease, an addiction, persecution or other traumatic events in their lives. Afterwards, because of it, they want to use what they experienced to help and comfort others. Sometimes, as Believers in Messiah Yeshua, God plans for things to happen to us so that He can use it for us to bring relief, comfort and consolation to others with the comfort and consolation we received from the Lord during our time of trial. I can attest to this from my own life, as I am now emerging from battling a second round of cancer. I have found a well of compassion that was not there before and which I never thought was in me.

2 Corinthians {1:3} "Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Messiah Yeshua, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, {1:4} who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God. {1:5} For just as we share abundantly in the sufferings of the Messiah so also our comfort abounds through the Messiah. {1:6} If we are distressed, it is for your comfort and salvation; if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which produces in you patient endurance of the same sufferings we suffer. {1:7} And our hope for you is firm, because we know that just as you share in our sufferings, so also you share in our comfort."

Life happens, we are all subject to the same curse placed upon Adam after the fall; old age, physical deterioration, sickness, pain, diseases, but all these things that we experience and encounter travelling through life do not have to overwhelm us and detract from living our lives for Yeshua. If we allow Him to, the God of all comfort will use us and our experiences to glorify Him and bring hope, encouragement and comfort to others.

From Ellen....

Hi Ellen here…Many years ago when Jack and I were at Congregation Melech Yisrael in Toronto I wrote an article on how the Lord peels back the layers of our lives. I likened the process to peeling an onion. I also thought that the Lord was patting me on the back because I had faced up to what He peeled away, repented and voilà I was redeemed. All this is true but lo and behold here I am at another stage in my life and there is lots of peeling going on…again! I have been going through a rough patch spiritually and the Lord reminded me of my article. What is the idiom of onion skin…it is to expose various layers of something…the need to peel back the onion skin to find out what was bothering me. Sounds easy right? Not so! So, I took a beautiful new onion from our pantry and started to peel…first the papery outside then that first peel that we really do not use then the clear filmy part…all discarded. Now I had a beautiful fresh onion so I began to slice and halfway through this perfect large bulb was a ring of mushy decrepit onion, yuck! This is an example of what our heavenly Abba does in our lives. I am sure that the spoiled ring in the middle of this beautiful onion is like an unresolved issue in our lives that needs further investigation. As I go through this rough patch or yucky spoiled ring in my life, I thank God for Him exposing my sin to me so I am able to confess and express the need for His forgiveness. If you are going through a hard time in your life, slice an onion and ask Abba to take you through a time of awareness. Do not worry, if you are willing to be humbled, He will help you through…sending you all my love.

Visit our blog for more teaching and to view previous Torah commentaries:

https://weeklyparasha02.blogspot.com/

DONATE

Please consider supporting the ministry to Kenya and Israel. In Kenya, we support the poor, sick and orphans. In Israel we help the elderly poor and sick.

Meet Janet (picture attached below), a prematurely born child at the orphanage who because she was premature, battles illness regularly and is often in need of medical care. Please keep her in prayer.

Yours in Messiah Yeshua; our Lord, our God, our soon coming King.

Rabbi Jack & Ellen

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Parasha Commentary

Sermon of the Week "He Calls Us Friend: Part 1"

Parasha Terumah (Offering)

From Rabbi Jack...

Psalm {8:3} "When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, the moon and the stars, which You have set in place, {8:4} what is mankind that You are mindful of them, human beings that You care for them? {8:5} You have made them a little lower than the angels and crowned them with glory and honor. {8:6} You made them rulers over the works of Your hands; You put everything under their feet:"

In creating man God turned over the administration of His creation to us. David was amazed that God would do such a thing because he felt, as we can tell by many of his psalms, so unworthy. We can all relate to David's feelings of unworthiness because I am sure that at one time or another, we have all felt unworthy. Like David we fall so short at times in our faith and commitment to God. However, God has not given us kingdom authority based upon our worthiness. Judging from the condition of the earth today, the pollution, the destruction of forests for profit, the poaching of animals for ivory and to satisfy people's desire for exotic meats, the killing of whales and other animals to the point of extinction for greed or pride, surely do not credit us with worthiness. No, I believe that God made man ruler over the works of His Hands for the purpose of eventually bringing them to salvation, not of their bodies but of their souls.

It is sad that those of us who have been saved through the acceptance of Messiah Yeshua as our Lord and Savior have to witness what the rest of the world is doing because of their rejection of God. However, the Bible teaches that we need to make such a mess of things, until we come to the point of realization that we cannot rule over the works of God's Hands, that we made a mess of it all. It is then that we will finally turn over what He has put under our feet back to Him in total and complete surrender to His Kingship.

Revelation {21:1} Then I saw "a new heaven and a new earth," for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. {21:2} I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. {21:3} And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "Look! God's dwelling place is now among the people, and He will dwell with them. They will be His people, and God Himself will be with them and be their God. {21:4} 'He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death' or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away." {21:5} He who was seated on the throne said, "I am making everything new!"

From Ellen...

Mmmmm…" MEDITATION", what comes to your mind when you hear or read this word? New age, yoga, mantra, clearing one's mind, concentrating on self or an object …all of these once came to my mind until I was saved and focused on my Lord and His Word. When you sit down to read your Bible by NO means clear your mind but by ALL means ask the Ruach, the Holy Spirit, to fill your mind with things that are lovely, noble and uplifting. Ask Him to bring His Word to you and flood your mind with it…ask the Ruach to guide you and instruct you on the journey He would have you go on through the written Word. Our Lord wants us to draw near to Him continually, and especially when reading His Word. "I will meditate on Your precepts and fix my eyes on Your ways." (Psalm 119.15)," Make me understand the way of Your precepts and I will meditate on Your wondrous works (Psalm 119.27). In a biblical sense to meditate really means to think about, to ponder, to mull over the Scripture…even to chew on it! Please do not read with thoughtless intention but read with the expectation of insight, understanding and wondrous enlightenment.

Visit our blog for more teaching and to view previous Torah commentaries:

https://weeklyparasha02.blogspot.com/

Please consider supporting the ministry to Kenya and Israel. See the pictures I have attached below.

DONATE

Yours in Messiah Yeshua; our Lord, our God, our soon coming King.

Rabbi Jack & Ellen

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